“This is a guise to obstruct — as has been happening during the five years President Obama has been president of the United States — and I object with as much fervor as I can,” Reid said on the Senate floor on Tuesday in response to the offer.

His comments came as Democrats scrambled to secure enough votes in the Senate to advance a bill to reinstate payments to more than 1 million unemployed Americans that expired at the end of the year.

Republicans on Capitol Hill have opposed the extension under the argument that they should be accompanied with meaningful spending cuts.

On Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell offered an amendment to the unemployment benefits bill that would delay the individual mandate in Obamacare for a year that requires all Americans to purchase health insurance or face fines.